They Blog For You

  My pre-election expectations range from realism to pessimism. I anticipated the results of all my six General Election results except the last one in 2011 and the first one in 1987.  I could have lost both. Today's poll on the Assembly Election is an extraordinary one.  The only worthwhile analysis was [...]

  The Speaker allowed me a bit of licence today. There was an emergency question on the sacking of service personnel. My Question sought to raise the National Audit Office's report of last week on  the failures of supplies to be delivered on time. What Hansard does not report is [...]

The political elite in SW1 are out of touch with the public on law and order, according to the Sunday Telegraph.  In a poll commissioned by Lord Ashcroft, 47 percent of voters think that no party has the right approach. [...]

Sombre news from the forgotten war in Afghanistan. Ten years of vast sacrifices in blood and treasure have achieved nothing. A mob is so anti-Western that peacemakers have been lynched. The Afghan Police were impotent spectators. Perhaps this will expose the foolish optimism of Liam Fox. He still believes that an [...]

One of the perils of politicians is that no sooner have they made a grand pronouncement on the sweep of history, as they perceive it, than events immediately conspire to prove that they had totally misread the runes and that the opposite is true.   That seems the fate of David Miliband [...]

Why didn't I think of that? It was such a strange question that I had never given it a thought. Aled ap Dafydd asked me on the Welsh Politics Show today, 'Why did AV in Australia double the number of voters who spoil their ballot papers?.' I do not believe they [...]

KEVIN Brennan MP has accused George Osbourne of giving with one hand but taking it away with the other over his plans to cut 1p off fuel duty - weeks after his VAT rise added 3p.The coalition Government increased VAT by 2.5% in January which pushed petrol prices up by [...]

As is usually the case, this is a very political Budget.   It will change the economic future of this country hardly at all.   The purpose of this Budget is camouflage to distract attention from the Great Axe that is about to fall within the next two weeks and to give [...]

Just a quick one to alert you to on online petition: http://www.frontlinenhs.co.uk/.Yes, I know there are lots of online petitions, but let's face it, it's a very easy way for you to register your support or opposition for something. I could be asking you to stand in the cold and [...]

Ridicule was called for today against gross ministerial incompetence.  I reminded Foreign Secretary William Hague of the Tories addiction to vain- glorious posturing.  ‘Does he recall the day when Minister Heseltine clad in a camouflage jacket and supported by 1500 soldiers and police landed by helicopter at Molesworth Peace Camp on a [...]

  I claim a record . Tory policy enunciated at 10.00 o'clock this morning was reversed at 11.00 o'clock. It was a  select committee session of two halves.  The incomparably indiscreet  Cabinet Office Minister Francis Maude gave an army of hostages to fortune. He said, believe it or not. that 'speed [...]

Maia Mikashavidze's tale in oner that disgraces the Government of Georgia.   For many reasons I have been a uprooter of Georgia. The country has a rough deal from the West. The Conservative MPs on the Council of Europe disgracefully back the Russians in 008 when then invaded sovereign territory of [...]

  A bracing start to a Sunday Morning. The splendid BBC Wales Politics show 'Sunday Supplement' began with a forensic probe into the Big Society. They chose a great point to start by playing this from this week's PASC meeting.\   Q138 Paul Flynn:  Every idea that you’ve come up with has been [...]

What I have tried to do is to identify where the parties stand on AV. For example the Tory Party is mainly against it, but there are some tories that support it. The Labour Party are split, but probably more support it than oppose it etc.I have then [...]

  Gutless Tories  There was a case to be made for the Forest Sell-off plan. I did not agree with it, but the Tories should have defended their position before their cowardly withdrawal. This was blind panic and the eighth major U-Turn by the Tory-led Government. The campaign run by '38 Degrees' was [...]

The new Tory dream has sunk into a nightmare. Hapless Cameron is picking up the deflated remains of his `Big Society''s big flop. All MPs, except a few uber-loyal Cameronians, openly mock the big nothing. The LibDems are in open contempt. Right-wing Tories are resigned and braced for embarrassment. Savagely cut [...]

Could it be that the Big Society is to David Cameron’s Conservative what the Selsdon agenda was to Ted Heath’s Tories?  Both promised to decentralise power – over politics and public services in the case of the Big Society, over the economy in the case of Selsdon.  [...]

  Newsnights’ Michael Crick claims to have inside knowledge of Tory plans to safeguard their MPs after the reductions in seat. Their cunning plan is to guarantee that no Tory loses out by the loss of the 50 seats. Among those they hope to nudge up to the upper house are Roger [...]

 Total of British soldiers killed in Afghanistan = 352 What will David Cameron blame for his downfall when he writes his autobiography? Privatising the NHS is his main mortal sin so far. Even though almost no group that is knowledgeable about health supports hawking off the most profitable bits to the highest [...]

Of all the crudity and insensitivity of the Tory spending cuts, the proposed cuts to legal aid are among the most unnecessary, harsh and foolish.   Unnecessary because the planned savings of £350m out of a £2bn legal aid budget are just 0.3% of the Tories’ intended elimination of the structural [...]